Best live event - internal

The 75th anniversary of Landsec, the UK’s biggest commercial property developer, provided the ideal opportunity to bring together more than 600 employees based across 22 sites for an event that encompassed celebration and strategy.

The communications team were tasked with creating an event that showcased the work Landsec is doing to drive engagement and understanding of innovation and technology across the company.

A project team, comprising event operations, internal communications and brand, led the project. They identified key content areas linked to the future of the business. Once the session programme was signed off by the executive committee, the team had just 16 weeks to deliver the event.

Binning the term ‘Company conference’, ‘Landsec Live!’ was coined as a brand identity to encapsulate the idea that the event would be an experience. The programme was built around workshops, showcases and interactive talking points.

To promote the event internally, the team created a dedicated events page on the staff intranet, and weekly content emails. Digital screens around the offices displayed teasers each week, while gifts, such as bottles of LemonAid, with humorous tags offered details, such as registration times. Information was kept to a minimum to ensure there was an air of anticipation.

The event, which was held at London’s Tobacco Dock, started with a surprise yoga session, followed up by mindfulness sessions at lunchtime. After yoga, Times’ journalist Matthew Syed kicked off the day with a keynote address discussing growth mindset and future thinking. Everybody attended the first session, but on its completion the delegates’ LED lanyards lit up, directing individuals into one of four groups.

Each group was directed into either ‘tech’, ‘innovation and retail’ or ‘workplace of the future’. The tech space showcased the latest technology used by Landsec, including virtual reality, holograms and edible spoons. Innovation offered a real-time voting session where delegates supported future trends by moving across the room to different stations. And workplace of the future offered updates on the newest areas of Landsec’s business, while one room was transformed into a replica of its co-working serviced office space.

The event finished with a keynote from Landsec chief executive Robert Noel on the future of the business, before concluding with a drinks reception in a roof terrace bar.

More than 80 per cent of employees attended the event, and feedback was overwhelmingly positive. ‘This looked like an inclusive, fun event,’ said the judges. ‘It was very effective and appeared highly entertaining.’